91Èȱ¬

Scotland prop Ryan Grant is a World Cup doubt after injuring an ankle during Saturday's 28-22 loss to Ireland.

The 29-year-old Glasgow Warriors player was carried off in Dublin and was on crutches at full-time following an extensive examination.

"Ryan's had an X-ray and we haven't had the results of that," said head coach Vern Cotter.

"We need to wait to be as accurate as we can on Ryan, and we can only wait and see at the moment."

Ireland, who convincingly beat Wales in Cardiff last weekend, dominated the opening half at the Aviva Stadium but had only Chris Henry's try to show for it as the visitors levelled through Blair Cowan.

The Scots stormed in front after the interval with touchdowns from Henry Pyrgos and Peter Horne. However, tries from Sean Cronin, Zebo and Luke Fitzgerald sealed a home win.

It was a heartening display from an experimental side, although there were worrying defensive lapses.

However, Cotter insisted that his main concerns were for injured players.

"I'm only really worried about injuries at this stage, obviously with Ryan, then Fraser Brown had a slight hamstring issue and Hugh Blake dislocated a finger," he said.

"I think there were some good things and some things that we can work on.

"We definitely need to be more accurate at times, the intentions were good but we let Ireland score a couple of tries perhaps too easily.

"I think it's a good start, but we can get better and we must get better. I'm happy but I'm not finished.

"There may be changes in the loose-forwards next week to see what other players who are working very hard can do as well."

Scotland continue their World Cup preparations by taking on Italy in Turin next Saturday, with their battle in Pool B kicking off on 23 September against Japan at Kingsholm.

Pyrgos marked his first taste of international captaincy with a try but was disappointed to end up on the losing side.

"I think we put ourselves in a position [to win the game]," said the Glasgow scrum-half.

"We went ahead three times in the second half but unfortunately we didn't get out of our half very well and let Ireland back into it.

"Congratulations to them, they played really well and it's a good win for them but we're hugely disappointed because we came here to get a win and we didn't get a win."